It seems we have come to the end of the wedding related posts.  I’ve shared my bridal shower and the bachelorette party as well as my wedding dress purchasing experience.  And let’s not forget about it pouring down rain only a few hours before what was suppose to be an outdoor ceremony.  Below I’ve listed all of the DIY projects we tackled along the way as well as the vendors we used.

But before we get to that here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the big day!  All of the photos below were taken by Korie Lynn Photography.

How cool is that detail shot?!?!  The pearl bracelet was HANDMADE by my Aunt!  I couldn’t find what I wanted so she made me the most perfect bracelet I could have ever imagined.

I had always dreamed of getting a picture in front of the white house and this was the perfect shot.  Luckily the rain held off until after this picture was snapped :)

This was taken in the lobby of the St. Regis a little while before the ceremony.  We had time to squeeze in a couple more photos so I suggested the purple couch since it matched our wedding colors.  I love that we are all smiles!

And last but certainly not least the picture above!  There I am between the two most important men in my whole life!  My husband to the left and my Dad to the right.  Not to mention all the special faces I can pick out in the crowd behind us.

Okay so there are some of the top pictures of the evening now for the roundup …

DIY Projects:

  1. Invitations
  2. Envelope Calligraphy
  3. Rehearsal Dinner Invites
  4. Escort Cards
  5. Table #s, Stamps and Thank You Cards
  6. Candy Buffet/Bar
  7. Menu Cards

Vendors:

Ceremony/Reception Venue: St. Regis Hotel
Photographer: Korie Lynn Photography
Floral Designer: MultiFlor
Band: ‘Round Midnight
Videographer: Suburban Video
Hair: George Salon
Makeup: Go Go Gorgeous
Wedding Dress: Stephen Yerick
Bridesmaids Dresses: Lazzaro
Groomsmen: Joseph A Bank

Oh and just in case you missed it we spent our honeymoon in Italy – Positano, Sorrento, Cinque Terre and Rome.

Happy Wedding Planning!!

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It’s almost time to call our wedding stuff a wrap, but before I do I MUST, must, must share with you my DC bridal shower.  My girls planned a lingerie bridal shower for me which was fabulous and the details were perfection.  The Newlywed Game was was pretty hilarious.   Before the bridal shower they asked my husband questions about the me and our relationship.  Then I was asked the same questions.  For each question I got wrong I had to chew a piece of bubble gum.

In the picture on the left we are all laughing and my sister is passing me some gum since I got a question wrong.  In the picture on the right I am clearly hesitant about the next question that will be asked.

Although I did pretty well I was definitely drooling because I was chewing so much bubble gum by the end of the game.  Do you see the tissue/napkin in my hand … yes I was starting to drool LOL.  That bubble gum is JUICY I tell you!  To go with the lingerie theme my cousin (who is insanely talented in the cake baking/designing department) made this beautiful cake:

I believe it is two sheet pan cakes – one for the base and one for the body – and the boobs were cupcakes.  I’ve been dying for a friend to have a lingerie themed bridal shower or bachelorette.  I would love to attempt to make this cake.  I found one blog that gave step by step instructions on how to make the cake, but it has recently been removed … POUT!  I should have copied the direction as soon as I found the blog – lesson learned.

And because one DIY baked good just wouldn’t do my sister and my mom’s friend made a second.  They made butt/lingerie cookies for all bridal shower guests.  Not only were the cookies yummy, they were so cute!  But these cookies are hard to transport.  The cookies pictured below were among the survivors from the 1.5 hour flight to DC from Boston.  Luckily they planned ahead and made extra in the event that some of the cookies broke during their travel time.  It’s strongly recommended you don’t travel too much with these little guys or they might get ruined.

So what did they need to make these cookies you might ask …

  1. Sugar Cookie Recipe
  2. Heart shaped cookie cutter
  3. White Frosting mixed with different food coloring
  4. Frosting bags and tips

I Facebooked my mom’s friend and she was kind enough to give me some tips on how to make these cookies come out right.   “I used a rolled sugar cookie dough.  Rolled it out and cut them into heart shapes. as soon as they came out of the oven, I cut off the tip end of the cookie, forming the butt part.  It was a lot of trial and error.  I tried doing that before I cooked them, but it didn’t work. they would swell and spread and not even look like a ‘fat butt’. ”  Thanks for the tips Kathy!!  Then the frosting bags were filled with tips and frosting.  From there you just decorate each individual cookie.

The husband showed up at the end of the shower to have dessert with me and all my lovely ladies.  My dad was there as well … don’t worry we wouldn’t leave him out.  :)  As folks were picking out their cookies and saying goodbye I snapped this fun picture of my little sister and husband.  I LOVE the picture and THEM!!!

The shower was SO much fun!  Do you like the cake and butt cookies?  I know I do!!!

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And I mean that literally … the wheel on the bus (read party bus) went POP.  So which (party) bus, how, when and what exactly happened is the “not so funny then”, but “kind of funny now” type of story.  Last summer my amazing maid of honor and bridesmaids planned a super fun bachelorette weekend for me and our friends!!  It was weekend packed of fun activities in the DC area.

The weekend started with a roof deck party.  Each girl brought a special drink/shot to share with the group.  It was our “low key” night in, however it turned into a late night with a very late night round of the game “never have I ever”.  Seriously, I don’t think I had played that game since high school, but what a fun thing to do on my last weekend as a single lady!

The next day we woke up and got ready for our party bus to arrive!  The ladies and I were headed to the beach to catch some rays and relax before our big night out that evening.  We all loaded onto the super cool bus and off we went.

About two thirds of the way there we all hear this huge POP!  The bus driver stayed calm and managed to pull over without any incidents.  We all pilled out of the bus and there was the culprit …

There wasn’t a whole lot we could do, but sit on the bus and wait.  This is where we went wrong. What we should have done was called a cab and had the bus company meet us at the beach.  Instead the bus driver kept assuring us it would only be another 30 minutes.  About 2-3 hours later they finally had a limo pick us up and drive us to the beach.  By the time we made it to the beach it was FULL and they were no longer letting people in.  We were all at a loss.  What should we do at this point?!

Luckily one of my friends jumped into action.  She called her friend who has a boat and he agreed to let a bunch of girls come hang out for a couple hours  … lucky him, right :)  Back to the city we went and spent a little fun in the sun on the boat.

The evening was spent having dinner at Lincoln and then we got our dance on at Josephine’s.  Despite the wheel going POP we had a great day!!!  I’m very lucky to have friends who just roll with the punches (so to speak).  The weekend showed me no matter what happens my friends and I always have a great time together … even if that means sitting on a hot party bus on the side of the highway for a few hours!

Do you have any “not so funny then”, but “kind of funny now” bachelorette weekend stories?

Happy Bachelorette Weekend!

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A year ago I married my best friend and love of my life.  Our special day feels like so long ago and yet at the same time like it was yesterday.  It is one of those days I would absolutely love to relive.  Exactly a year late my husband and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in style!  After a romantic weekend away in Charlottesville we celebrated the actual big day with a glass of wine on the balcony followed by dinner at Tosca.  Tosca has some AAAmazing Italian food!!  If you go to this place you MUST MUST MUST try the Rosemary and thyme fettuccine with a roasted leg of lamb ragu and braised artichokes … it’s absolutely to die for!

After an amazing dinner we headed home to eat cake.  And not just any cake, but the top of our wedding cake!  I’m curious how this tradition of freezing the top layer of your wedding cake and eating it on your one year anniversary came about, but in any case we honored this tradition.  My mother-in-law wrapped the cake up for us and let’s just say she rocked it.  This cake top looks just like it did 364 days ago!

Even the top looks great and I have to admit we piled a stuff on top of it at some point.

How yummy does this look?  It’s almost like the perfect slice.

Although the cake wasn’t nearly as good as it was a year ago it was fun to eat our wedding cake on our 1 year anniversary.  Given how amazing our first year of marriage was and fun our first anniversary was the husband and I really set a high standard for the rest of our lives.  :)

Did you eat the top of your wedding cake on your 1 year anniversary?  How did it taste?

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A few days ago a friend of mine linked from her Tumblr account to this Huffington Post article.  The article “15 Ways to Stay Married for 15 Years” by Lydia Netzer has a lot of great advice on thing she and her husband have learned throughout the years together.  All her tips are a home run – in my opinion – the only one I really can’t decide if I totally agree with or not is “Go to Bed Angry”.  Although I see her point I would almost want to modify to say “sometimes go to bed angry”.

I’ve noticed a lot of married couples have their own tips/tricks to a long and successful marriage and I enjoy hearing their tidbits.  AND … with the husband and I quickly approaching our one year anniversary together I often think this  first year was a great start to the rest of our lives together!  I hope to write my own 15 tips for saying married in 14 years and 1 month. :)


Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

One of my absolute favorite pieces of advice is #12.  So FRIENDS I make this husband (and wife) pact with you …

“12. Make a husband pact with your friends – The husband pact says this: I promise to listen to you complain about your husband even in the most dire terms, without it affecting my good opinion of him. I will agree with your harshest criticism, accept your gloomiest predictions. I will nod and furrow my brow and sigh when you describe him as a hideous ogre. Then when your fight is over and love shines again like a beautiful sunbeam in your life, I promise to forget everything you said and regard him as the most charming of princes once more. The husband pact is very useful because you want to be able to vent to your friend without having her actually start hating your husband. Because you don’t really mean all those things you say. And she, the swearer of the pact, knows this.” source

The husband and I always say we are a team and it’s kind of become our thing.  So much so that we made sure the word team was in our wedding vows and made team sweat suites for the morning after our wedding.  Due to my love of the team mentality tip #14 really hit home for me …

“14. Be loyal.  All the crap you read in magazines about honesty, sense of humor, communication, sensitivity, date nights, couples weekends, blah blah blah can be trumped by one word: loyalty. You and your spouse are a team of two. It is you against the world. No one else is allowed on the team, and no one else will ever understand the team’s rules. This is okay. The team is not adversarial, the team does not tear its members down, the team does not sabotage the team’s success. Teammates work constantly to help and better their teammates. Loyalty means you put the other person in your marriage first all the time, and you let them put you first. Loyalty means subverting your whims or desires of the moment to better meet your spouse’s whims or desires, with the full understanding and expectation that they will be doing the same. This is the heart of everything, and it is a tricky balance. Sometimes it sways one way and sometimes the other. Sometimes he gets to be crazy, sometimes it’s your turn. Sometimes she’s in the spotlight, sometimes you. Ups and downs ultimately don’t matter, because the team endures.” source

What do you think of Lydia Netzer’s tips?  Is she missing any important tidbits?  Do you like the husband pact?

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